1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of digital printing systems for so-called “continuous” webs, i.e. printing systems where a continuous roll of substrate (e.g., paper, plastic foil, or a multi-layer combination thereof) is run through the printer, in particular to print large numbers of copies of the same image(s), or alternatively, series of images, or even large sets of individually varying images.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional printing, an image to be printed is defined on a plate, which is arranged around a cylinder in such a way as to stamp a copy of the image onto the relevant portion of the web upon each revolution of the cylinder. When these continuous webs have to be subjected to a subsequent mechanical cut-out operation (e.g., to cut contours in the top layer of a multi-layer substrate, so as to produce peel-off adhesive labels), it is conventional to also define the cut-out pattern as a plate which repetitively imposes the same cut-out pattern onto the relevant portion of the passing substrate. The same logic is presently being applied to laser cutters, which don't use a physical roll with cutting edges, but which nevertheless use a cutting pattern defined as a single “plate area” which is repeatedly applied.
It is a disadvantage of this method that it is not sufficiently flexible.